Ship of The Line – Effect 31
by Knife Hand
Summary: Bored with how things are going to play out, Janus interferes more directly in Halloween, making things more interesting and changing the course of the entire Galaxy. (Buffy/Star Trek/Mass Effect) - Chapter 11 up
1. Chapter 1

Title: Ship of The Line – Effect 31

Author: Knife Hand

Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated

Spoilers: Nothing Specific.

Rating: R

Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy, Star Trek or Mass Effect... I would buy them all but I am broke.

Summary: Bored with how things are going to play out, Janus interferes more directly in Halloween, making things more interesting and changing the course of the entire Galaxy. (Buffy/Star Trek/Mass Effect)

* * *

Janus was bored. Not just bored with how things were, bored with how things were going to be for the next few centuries. After that some interesting things would happen but for the mean time… bored. If he weren't so bored, Janus would never have taken notice of a small-time magic user who was invoking his name, and thinking he was a Chaos God. Janus was the God of Beginnings, Endings, Crossroads and a few other things, but many thought him a Chaos God as endings or beginnings were often times of turbulence and chaos.

At first, when examining the spell, Janus was disappointed. Sure, it was a creative idea, turning your victims into their costumes for Halloween, but looking forward it would change nothing. Then he noticed the potential of three of the costumes that were not selected. Between one heartbeat and the next of the magic user, Janus ran through over a billion possible combinations of how to use the costumes to create change. Finally finding the most interesting change, Janus rolled back time and made a few subtle, and a few not so subtle, changes. The subtle ones were as minor as simply moving a costume to the left by two feet, but the less subtle changes were not relating to the three key costumes, but instead related to other costumes. Changing the allegiance of costumes from something generic to a specific organisation; altering a costume enough to change it from historical to something with a specific skill set; or simply removing whole genres of costumes via 'delivery interruptions'.

Usually manipulation of the past was frowned upon, particularly when it would change 'The Plan', but as these changes did not change anything that had already happened to a living biological entity, no one would even notice. Particularly not those incompetent and boring 'Powers that Be'.

No one, not even the Mage who was casting the spell, ever realised that a change had been made, but the results of the small alterations would echo thought the Galaxy. Janus simply smiled. This would be interesting.

* * *

A beeping on his wristcomp needlessly altered him, as he had already identified the targets. A tap deployed the emergency nanite armour over his uniform and he drew the weapon on his back. His uniform was a black, military style outfit with a yellow trim. The outer jacket, which showed an undershirt beneath through the small gap in the zipper at the top, had a number of pouches for small items and the pants had large pockets down the thighs. His boots were almost knee high and were laced tight and he had a belt with more pouches. On the left breast of the jacket was a black, vaguely arrow shaped icon, with a double row of formal medal markers below in various shapes. Knelling on one knee, he aimed at the centre mass of one of the targets.

"Take cover." He ordered to the others around him as he fired.

They were children, but they still acted like soldiers, taking cover and aiming the wide variety of weapons at the targets instead of cowering. His plasma rifle's fire hit the target and it burst into flames, crumbling into dust. The fire from the others was nowhere near as effective, some being solid projectiles and others being coherent energy weapons. The solid projectiles largely useless unless they happened to shatter the spinal column or the knees to slow them down slightly; while the energy weapons requiring precise shots to the heart or eye socket to cause any significant damage.

A different beeping alerted him to an incoming transmission, which he activated with a jaw switch.

"Harris." He acknowledged, as he fired again.

"Commodore, this is The Ares. The Athena is currently docked and networked, and I am in contact with The Artemis. We are all in Geosynchronous Orbit above your location. Sigma Protocol is in effect." The strong male voice said over the radio.

"No shit, I got vampires and at least one Polgaran here." Commodore Alexander Harris replied to his Ship's AI, shifting his aim to the Polgaran and firing again. "Task Force Personnel status?"

"Sub-dermal Locators only for yourself, Captain Summers of The Athena and Captain Rosenberg of The Artemis. No sign of any other Task Force Personnel. I am picking up multiple other military signals, including standard Starfleet signatures and a number of organisations I don't have in my database. One group is using MACO Protocols." Ares replied.

"Initiate Cleansweep, forty minute countdown, and connect me with all of units within the city limits." The Commodore ordered, and waited for the click to indicate the various parties. "This is Commodore Harris of The Ares; I am taking operational command of all ground forces. A tactical device is inbound. I am setting up an extraction point at the corner of Rodello Drive and Marigold Avenue. Deadline is thirty minutes."

A tap on his wristcomp disconnected him from the wide frequency transmission and a few more taps of co-ordinates, a trio of Photon Turrets beamed in, set to only fire on movement with zero body heat, unless he specifically targeted an enemy.

A few groups quickly began to converge on the intersection, about a third of the groups were one or two older soldiers accompanied by child soldiers, and a few of the other groups of soldiers were escorting civilians, though usually scientist or diplomats. As they came in, the soldiers were allocated to the defence perimeter while the civilians were secured in the centre of the extraction zone. Not every group that came in were alone, some were followed by civilians and some by hostiles. The soldiers quickly became proficient with spotting the difference between Civilians and Hostiles. The biggest clue was if the Phaser Turrets opened fire or not.

Three minutes after the mass transmission went out, Captain Summers of The Athena, dressed in the same black uniform but with a red trim and a pair of pistols in her hands, with the corresponding holsters at her waist instead of a rifle holster on her back, arrived with another group of children. Another two minutes the MACO Team arrived, surprisingly made up solely of female Operatives, led by a tall, confident brunette.

It was six minutes before the deadline that Captain Rosenberg of The Artemis, again in the black uniform but with a blue trim, with a single pistol in a holster at her right hip and a large pouch, extending down her thigh, on her left hip containing scientific equipment, arrived with six other older soldiers, twenty children solders and six civilians.

"Ninety seconds to extraction." Ares said over the coms.

"Artemis, you ready to receive?" Harris asked.

"Confirmed, Commodore." A slightly husky female voice replied.

Not husky in a sexual way, instead a more 'outdoors' husky, if that was not a total contradiction for a shipboard AI.

"Alright everyone, group around myself or Captain Rosenberg." Harris ordered.

The two groups gathered with a ten-foot gap between them.

"Ares, Artemis. Energise." Harris ordered.

In a flash of light, the two groups disappeared from the street of Sunnydale.

* * *

Harris and Summers' group materialised in a large recreation room aboard The Ares. Many of the others, except the Starfleet personnel, were looking around in wonder.

"Ares, Athena. Security Holograms." The Commodore ordered. "You all need to stay here. Summers, with me."

Two figures appeared standing by the door. One was a tall man with short hair and a close-cropped beard, while the other was a lean woman with dark hair in a braid down her back. Both of the new arrivals were dressed in black uniforms, but over the uniforms they both wore vests, bracers and shin guards that resembled old school metallic plate armour. Both also had a rifle in their hands and a sword at their waists.

Harris and Summers were the only ones who were allowed to exit the room, one soldier who tried to follow was stopped by Athena's hand on his shoulder that he was unable to push aside.

Harris and Summers made their way to the Bridge, where another holographic version of Area and Athena were waiting. Ares was at the weapons console while Athena was at the science station.

"Report." Xander ordered.

"Hellmouth energies confirmed." Athena reported. "I have managed to compensate for the energy signal and a secondary interference signal. Artemis and I have solid transport locks achieved on every uncorrupted life sign within the influence zone. Uncorrupted population is thirty-two thousand, four hundred and sixteen, excluding already evacuated personnel."

"Cleansweep ready. Six-minutes fifty-three seconds to deadline. The weapon is loaded and ready to fire, at your command Commodore." Ares added.

"Summers, take a team of Security Holograms down to the flight deck for crowd control duties. Athena, begin beaming up in co-ordination with Artemis to the flight decks." Harris ordered.

Buffy nodded to her orders and left the bridge. Athena began rapidly entering commands into her station. Xander sat down in the command chair in the centre of the bridge and began to monitor the progress.

"Thirty seconds to deadline." Ares reported. "Delivery time fifteen seconds."

"Twenty-eight seconds to finalise transport." Athena added.

"6. 5. 4. 3. 2…" Ares counted down.

"Fire." Commodore Harris ordered.

The Weapon that was fired was not something usually used by Starfleet, even the secretive 'Black Badges' of Section 31. In fact, even in Section 31, only one of the three Commodores who lead the task forces for 'Subsection Delta' had access to them and they could only be used when Sigma Protocol was in effect as part of a Cleensweep. Harris watched as the special torpedo arced down to the town below.

People often use the term 'Annihilation' for a range of destructive events, but what happened in the town of Sunnydale, when the torpedo detonated, was the correct and scientific definition of the word. When the antimatter of the weapon came into contact with the matter of the town, the two reacted and annihilated each other, along with approximately six thousand humans who were deemed to be 'corrupted', eighteen thousand Vampires and nine thousand, six hundred Demons of various breeds. One of those 'Corrupted' Humans happened to be a Chaos Mage who had opened a costume shop.

With the destruction of the Chaos Mage and the focus item, the spell ended. Aboard the United Federation of Planets, Section 31 Advanced Dreadnaught Class Starship Ares, the personality of Commodore Alexander Harris, Task Force Commander of Section 31 Subsection Delta, Demon Hunter Task Force 'Gods of War', receded into the background and was replaced by Xander Harris, teenage Highschool Student and Demon Hunter.

"Ares, take us to Mars orbit. Warp 2." Xander ordered, rubbing his head as he rose. "I'll be in my quarters."

Xander's feet automatically took him to the Commodore's Quarters, subtly demonstrating that he still retained the memories of the Commodore.

TBC…


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Ship of The Line – Effect 31

Author: Knife Hand

Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated

Spoilers: Nothing Specific.

Rating: R

Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy, Star Trek or Mass Effect... I would buy them all but I am broke.

Summary: Bored with how things are going to play out, Janus interferes more directly in Halloween, making things more interesting and changing the course of the entire Galaxy. (Buffy/Star Trek/Mass Effect)

* * *

Xander Harris, Buffy Summers, Willow Rosenberg, Rupert Giles, Cordelia Chase, Joyce Summers and Jenny Calendar sat around the table of the main briefing room aboard the Ares, with the Holographic Avatars of The Ares, The Athena and The Artemis standing at one end of the table.

"Sunnydale has been destroyed, in a way known to seal Hellmouths." Xander announced. "We evacuated all the uncorrupted civilians, but to the rest of the world Sunnydale and its entire population are gone. We can't go back."

"This is no standard Starfleet Vessel, is it?" Jenny Calendar asked. "You were Section 31."

Jenny had been dressed as a Starfleet Ambassador. Cordy had been the commander of the MACO Team. Joyce's costume had been a planetary governor, but not one associated with the United Federation of Planets or anything Star Trek related. Giles had not been dressed up for Halloween, but he was included in the meeting because Xander, Buffy and Willow trusted him.

"We were Subsection Delta." Buffy replied. "A dedicated Demon hunting group. Subsection Delta was to the rest of Section 31 what 31 was to normal Starfleet."

"Tell us about these vessels." Giles said.

"You are currently on The Ares, the Task Force Flag Ship. An advanced design based on the Post Dominion War Dreadnaught, which itself was designed around the Galaxy Class Cruiser. A heavy combat vessel, with a Phaser Spinal Lance and carries two squadrons of Perrigin class Fighters. The Ares also is the mothership for The Athena, an upgraded Defiant Class Escort, fast, hard hitting and manoeuvrable. The other ship is The Artemis, a Jupiter Class Carrier, which contains five flights of Callisto Light Escorts. They have almost as much firepower as The Athena, but are much smaller, more vulnerable and lacking Warp Capabilities." Willow explained. "However, where most Starfleet Vessels are designed to be exploration and scientific platforms, Section 31 Vessels were specifically designed for stealth and combat. Unlike standard Starfleet ships, which are prohibited from using them, all three Vessels are equipped with Cloaking Devices."

There was silence for a few minutes as everyone processed the information.

"What's the plan?" Joyce asked.

"First order of business is to check the location of Vulcan and Andor, to see if any of the other Founding Races are around. We will evaluate from there." Xander said. "We will also look for a suitable colonisation location. We have over thirty-thousand people aboard the two ships, which will severely tax the life support systems."

"We are going to need soldiers, for Colony Security if nothing else. The Ares usually contains a significant Section 31 Marine contingent. As task force Executive Officer, I was also in overall command of the Marine element." Buffy said. "With Lieutenant Chase's assistance, the training will be a mix of Section 31 Marine and MACO tactics."

This got a nod from Cordy.

"For now, let's start with checking out these planets, Vulcan and Andor." Joyce concluded, getting nods from everyone, including the three AI.

* * *

The two Starships dropped out of warp and began scanning the system. The co-ordinates for the Vulcan System had provided nothing but an almost barren star system with a massive asteroid belt and a single Gas Giant in the outer system, so they had moved on to the co-ordinates for the Andor system. The Homeworld of the Andorians was a moon around a Gas Giant.

"Scans complete." Athena announced. "Andor not found. There is a single Gas Giant in this system, but it is much too small and has no satellites. There is, however, an M Class Planet in the prime Habitable zone. Preliminary scans indicate that it has an earth norm atmosphere; rich mineral deposits, including Dilithium; and large bodies of free water. We will have to approach closer to get more details, including the presence or absence of native sentients."

Continuous scans were made as the two spaceships approached the M Class Planet, almost all of them extremely favourable. Saltwater Oceans and freshwater rivers. Lush open plains and forested mountain areas. Axial tilt enough to provide seasons but not so extreme that it would be parched in summer and under fifteen feet of snow in winter. In orbit a prime location was identified with the only thing left for an away team to actually go down and scout the area.

"Rosenberg, gather an away team from the Starfleet Officers, science and engineering only. Lieutenant Chase and her MACO team will beam down with you for protection and tactical assessment." Xander ordered.

"Understood, Commodore." Willow responded.

In the few moments where Xander, Willow and Buffy were alone, they were once again friends, joking and calling each other by their first names, but in public they were the highest-ranking officers and thus used Rank and Surnames. Much like how Ares reported that in public Cordy and her team were professional soldiers, as one would expect from MACO, but in private they went some way back to the clique of Highschool cheerleaders that they had been before Halloween.

The away mission went without a hitch. A good area for building, with solid foundation stone close under the surface, with prime farming land nearby, in close proximity to both a freshwater river and a forest. There were some indications of animals living in the forest and the river was well stocked with a fish like aquatic lifeform that scans indicated was both non-sentient and nutritionally compatible to humans. Once deemed a good settlement site, the first batch of the refugees were beamed down, alongside some replicator equipment from the Artemis. The replicators were industrial and large enough to replicate an entire Castillo Light Escort in a single go, so would be useful in getting the colony started. The first batch of refugees were, apart from a few soldiers for security, the tradesmen and foremen of the two major construction companies that had been operating in Sunnydale at the time of the evacuation, along with Colony Governor Joyce Summers.

After discussions between Joyce and the foremen, with liberal use of the replicators, within thirty-six hours there were enough basic buildings for the majority thirty-two thousand plus refugees to have a bunk in temporary barracks. They were not comfortable but it was necessary to take the strain off the ships life support systems. The temporary barracks were off to the side of where the prime settlement site would be set up, with the engineers from the Construction Companies walking the site and laying down a plan of the new settlement in rope on the ground even as the last refugees were being transported down to the surface.

* * *

Buffy sat on the bridge of The Athena as it dropped out of Warp into another star system.

"Engage cloak." Buffy ordered. "Passive scans only."

"Aye, Aye, Captain." Came a response from the engineering station. "Cloak engaged and active scanners secured."

After two months, the settlement was up and running and everyone was starting to come to terms with what had happened. It had kind of helped that no one had disappeared or suffered from a 'spontaneous barbeque fork accident', but some people had not really coped. There had been one small riot, started by the former Sunnydale Elite who could not believe they were no longer in charge. Two men, one of them Cordy's father, were still in the brig on the Ares. It had been a pleasure for anyone who had ever met the man to see Cordy quickly and painfully disable her own father and arrest him. There had also been nine attempted suicides, one of them successful. Construction on the settlement was still ongoing but an ever-growing portion of the population were moving out of the temporary barracks and into more permanent accommodations.

Part of the issue was the isolation the former Sunnydale residents felt, so Commodore Harris, Ambassador Calendar and Governor Summers had agreed to send out The Athena to search the nearby systems for other civilisations.

Most of those who had gone to Halloween as Starfleet Officers were assigned to The Athena for the recon mission. Back on 'Haven', as the colony had been dubbed, many of those who had gone as costumes from different space faring civilisations were being trained in Starfleet/Section 31 procedures, though any areas where the other civilisations had better tactics, technology or procedures were being cherrypicked. There was even a fair number who had dressed as pilots, either space based or atmospheric, who were being trained up on the Perrigins or the Callistos.

"Picking up something unusual on sensors." The Science Officer reported.

"Report." Buffy ordered.

"Looks like two ships, one actively pursuing the other. The one trying to get away seems to be headed for some strange construct." The Science Officer said.

"Take us in, and keep listening for any transmissions. I want to know who the bad guys are before we make our presence known." Buffy ordered.

* * *

Kemi'Zorah nar Kellos swore as she tried to keep the small ship ahead of the Batarian Pirates who were chasing them. Kemi was not a pilot, but luckily it seemed whoever was at the helm of Pirate Ship was not much of one either.

"Saris, you really need to get the rear Kinetic Barriers up." Kemi yelled back. "Even as bad shots as these Bosh'tets are, they'll still get use before we reach the Relay."

"Keep your suit on." Saris'Gerral nar Kellos replied from the engine room.

"I'll get on the top turret. Herris, you get on the bottom turret." Zerra'Zona nar Kellos said, emerging from her room and strapping down the final fastenings on her environmental suit, before heading up a ladder. Herris emerged from his own room and slid down the ladder to the lower turret station

In the little over a century since the Quarians had been run off their Homeworld of Rannoch, their immune systems had begun to weaken and out of their own quarters it had become culturally expected that they wear environmental suits. During their evolution on Rannoch, the Quarians had lived in a semi-symbiotic relationship with most of the bacteria and fungi of their world, so their immune systems were more geared to adapting to infections than fighting them.

The four Quarians on the small ship were all youths on their Pilgrimage, the Quarian rite of passage into adulthood, and all childhood friends who grew up on the same ship, the Kellos. Kemi felt the slight tremor of the turrets firing through the chair as her hands played over holographic interface of the helm.

"Give up, you Suit Rats." Came a Batarian transmission over the radio. "You and your ship will be experiencing the fine hospitality of the Batarian Hegemony."

"Yeah, control chips in our brains and shock collars." Kemi transmitted back. "Thanks, but we have another appointment."

The Batarians laughed over the radio until another voice interrupted them.

"Aggressor Vessel, this is Captain Summers of The Athena. Stand down and prepare to be boarded, or be destroyed." The new, female voice said.

"Nice one. Your shuttle must be so small we can't detect it, so how would you board us." The Batarian replied. "Once we deal with the Suit Rats, we'll take our time with you."

"So be it." Summers said.

Kemi was so shocked at what happened next that she could not move before it was all over. A ship that look like nothing she had ever seen before literally appeared out of nowhere in front the Quarian's Ship, but slightly above them so they were not in the way. There was no rapid deceleration event from emerging from a Mass Relay or even the effect of dropping from the much slower FTL used to go between stars in clusters, it simply appeared out of empty space.

The ship looked like someone had attached short 'wings' to a circular middle section, then added a small protrusion at the front. Though it was much smaller than the Batarian Slave Ship, the new ship had a look of deadly grace the Batarian ship lacked. A few seconds after the ship appeared, it opened fire. As far as Kami knew, which was pretty far due to the extensive technical knowledge of the Quarians, every military used mass effect accelerated projectile weapons for their ship based offensive weapons. Energy weapons were only used for short range point defence lasers, while missiles and torpedos were rare. This ship blew that truism away, by opening fire with both rapid firing bolts of energy and continuous lasers. Added into this was the occasional torpedo, that moved faster than any torpedo developed in or out of Council Space. Needless to say, the Batarian Slave Ship was caught completely off guard and was ripped to shreds, it's kinetic barriers basically useless against the onslaught.

"Athena to shuttle, can we render assistance?" Summers asked.

"Affirmative, Athena. We are having some technical issues." Kemi replied.

"Do you need a beam out or can you dock?" Summers inquired.

"We can dock." Kemi replied, wondering what on Rannoch 'beam out' meant.

Another voice, this one male, came on and talked them into the tiny shuttle bay. When the four Quarians emerged, they were met by an alien species they had never met before. Similar to the Asari, but they were not blue but seemed to be either a pale pink or light brown colour. They also had hair. Kemi had never heard of another species besides Quarians who had hair. One, a pale skinned female with golden hair walked forwards.

"I'm Captain Summers. Welcome aboard The Athena." The greeted, holding out her hand.

Kemi mimicked the action and almost jumped when Summers grabbed her hand and put it into the Captain's own and pumped it up and down once.

"I'm Kemi'Zorah nar Kellos, my friends are Zerra'Zona nar Kellos; Saris'Gerral nar Kellos and Herris'Reegar nar Kellos." Kemi replied.

"nar Kellos. Family or place?" Summers asked.

"The ship we were born on." Zerra replied.

"Well, we will show you to some temporary quarters." Summers said. "Hope you don't mind some company, as we rescued some others."

"You rescued those four-eyed bastards?" Saris almost growled.

"We rescued some sexy blue space babes, but they only have two eyes." Summers replied. "There were three on the ship, distinct in their life signs from the crew, so we beamed them over before we destroyed it."

"Asari." Zerra said.

"That's what they called? One tried to hit on me already." Summers said with a shrug.

TBC…


	3. Chapter 3

Title: Ship of The Line – Effect 31

Author: Knife Hand

Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated

Spoilers: Nothing Specific.

Rating: R

Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy, Star Trek or Mass Effect... I would buy them all but I am broke.

Summary: Bored with how things are going to play out, Janus interferes more directly in Halloween, making things more interesting and changing the course of the entire Galaxy. (Buffy/Star Trek/Mass Effect)

A/N: This Fic does not mess with the Timelines in any way, so in both Buffy and Mass Effect, this Fic started on 31st October 1997. This means it is almost 200 years prior to the events of Mass Effect 1. For reference, this means the Quarians have only been a space nomadic race for 100 odd years and the Drell are still on their own Homeworld, not refugees on the Hanar Homeworld. At the start, no one will have seen Humans before meeting the former Sunnydalers.

* * *

"Based on the information we received from the Quarians, the Asari Slaves we freed and the computer systems in the Quarian Shuttle, there is a single major political block called the Citadel Council, which likes to think it runs the Galaxy." Buffy explained to the leadership group of Haven Colony.

The group was the same group that had been in the first conference after the Halloween Event, but this time there were two copies of the AI present. The second set of AI were not dressed in uniform but were dressed in civilian clothes and were trying to decide on new names. The Civilian versions were copies of Ares, Athena and Artemis who had been installed on Haven based servers to help manage the smooth running of the colony, thus their mission directives and, eventually, personalities were different from their spaceship twins.

"Council Space contains seven different species, but the ruling council itself is only made up of representatives from three species, The Asari, The Turians and The Salarians." Buffy continued. "The Quarians are not part of the Council Space, having been expelled just over a century ago when their Synthetic servants, called the Geth, reached sentient status. There was a war, the Quarians got kicked off their home world of Rannoch by the Geth, who have not been heard from since, and got declared pariah by the Council, who hate AI for some reason."

"Are the Batarians part of Council Space?" Jenny asked.

"No." Buffy answered. "They are considered a rogue species by most of the Council Races due to their insistence that Slavery is a fundamental part of their culture and any attempts to end slavery is a violation of their freedoms. Insane, I know. There have been a few wars between the Batarians and the Council, particularly the Turians, but the Batarians could not compete with the Council and now mostly resort to piracy and terrorist tactics. There is one other Species worth noting. The Krogan. Large, warlike, redundant organs, aggressive. They were 'uplifted' from their Homeworld by the Salarians to fight a species call the Rachni, an insectoid race. Once the Rachni were wiped out, the Krogans began trying to conquer other planets, so the Council ordered biological warfare against them in the form of the Genophage, a sterility virus that almost stops their reproduction. One in a thousand is the survival rate of embryos I believe. There is also an almost lawless zone known as the Traverse where a lot of pirates and smugglers operate."

"Thank you, Captain." Xander said. "I see some disturbing trends in this, but an opportunity as well. I can not see the Council welcoming us. Firstly, we have AI which they have deemed illegal. Secondly, the Council will expect us to submit to their authority and have them decide on our development and technology levels."

"I concur." Joyce added. "The Council seems to be a political mess. Conflicting racial interests, oppressive restrictions on synthetic lifeforms, and these reports of Extra-territorial special operatives that are above the law. That is very concerning."

"We are not strong or populous enough to stand on our own." Jenny observed. "We'll need allies."

"Everyone agrees to that." Willow confirmed. "But I think we are stronger than you think. I have compared the technology of the Quarian Shuttle and the scans of the Batarian Ship. Even taking into account they are not military vessels; our technology is significantly more advanced than theirs. They have no proper shields. What they have are closer to our navigational shields than combat shields. Compared to our own, their weapons are quite primitive. "

"It is my recommendation that we approach the Quarians for an alliance." Buffy said. "They are a technologically adept species and their entire species is nomadic as they are denied the right to settle on any world in Council Space and they are preyed upon by the Batarians and the pirates of the Traverse. If we expand our control towards Batarian Space, we can help the Quarians find a suitable planet to colonise and help them with replicator technology and medical treatments for their immune system. In return, we get technical assistance in building more Spaceships and any Quarian who want can join Section 31."

"Look for the disgruntled from Council Space as well." Giles suggested. "From what I gather, many of them go to the Traverse, same with the Krogan who leave their Homeworld. If we can get them to join us, we can have quite a strong and diverse force, and cultural insights into any opponent we may face."

"Anyone besides the Batarians. Them we will break." Buffy almost snarled.

"Captain Summers, why don't you beam back to the Athena and check on our guests?" Xander suggested.

"Commodore." Buffy said with a nod, then looked over at Athena's avatar and was beamed up in a flash of light.

"I have never seen her hate anyone that much." Joyce said, talking as a mother and not a planetary governor.

Xander pressed a button built into the conference tabled.

"Yeah, control chips in our brains and shock collars. Thanks, but we have another appointment." Came the recorded voice of one of the Quarians.

"Captain Summers spent eighteen months fighting a cabal that had made a pact with a Demon Prince on Beta Eridanus six. The cabal used neural control chips to turn first the colonists and then later captured Section 31 personnel against us, alongside lower level demons." Xander explained.

"Beta Eridanus Six was a failed research colony." Jenny countered. "Geological instability."

"A cover story to hide the demonic invasion." Willow countered with a shrug. "You expected us to tell Starfleet about Demons? Half the idiots would have wanted to talk to them and gotten eaten, the rest would have wanted to study them… and gotten eaten."

"The fighting there was brutal, but more so for Captain Summers on a personal level. Her Fiancée was captured and turned. Summers had to eliminate them." Xander finished.

There were a few moments of silence as the others processed that information.

"So, are we agreed on approaching the Quarians for an alliance?" Xander asked, getting nods from around the table. "We should also explore avenues of how to quietly spread a recruiting message in Citadel Space."

* * *

Buffy managed to keep it together until she reached her quarters aboard The Athena. She knew Xander and Willow would be relating the outline of Beta Eridanus Six and was grateful to Xander for sparing her the looks of the others when they heard. Captain Buffy Summers was in her late forties and had lived through a lot more the Sunnydale Highschool version of Buffy Summers. Compared to planetary scale Demonic Invasions or some of the nightmare constructs the Demons used in space, the simple Vampires and occasional Demon of Sunnydale barely registered any more. Also, compared to Captain Summer's relationship with her Fiancée, Buffy could now see that her 'thing' for Angel was simply Teenage drama rather than anything real.

Twenty-five years of friendship. Twelve dating. Three engaged. One round to the forehead.

"Mira." Whispered, a sob being pulled from her as her eyes swelled with tears. "I'm sorry, my love."

Buffy could still see that awful moment. Deep green eyes struggling against the pain and control signal urging violence in support of the Demons. The pattern of spots running up the slender neck that Buffy could not help lazily trace over when they were snuggling in bed. The Subsection Delta uniform torn and dirty, so unlike the usual sharp and neat presentation. A single curl of hair escaping down over her forehead, the tip brushing against a perfect eyebrow.

"Please, Buffy. Stop me." The plea through gritted teeth.

Taking a step back, tears filling her own eyes, Buffy had raised her pistol and placed it against the forehead of her Trill Goddess.

"Thank you." A parting gift, though a painful one.

Buffy's finger had caressed the trigger and Mira fell to the floor. Then grief, pain, a sword and vengeance.

Buffy curled up on the bunk and tears flowed freely. Both Buffy and Mira had sworn to protect life from the Demons. Mira paid with her life. Buffy was still paying, would do every day, but she would do it for Mira, and Xander, and Willow, and her mother, and….

TBC…

A/N: That was not how I initially planned to have this chapter go, but the last scene in particular needed to be told. Many reviewers said that it was 'to aggressive even for Section 31' for Buffy to shoot that quickly at the Batarians, but as this shows Buffy had her reasons. Also, Subsection Delta is not like the rest of Section 31 or Starfleet. Starfleet are explorers and diplomats, the ideal utopian society. The rest of Section 31 are like the CIA or MI6, an intelligence agency that sometimes gets their hands dirty but primarily are spies. Subsection Delta are more like US Delta Force or the SAS. They are the ones who go into the hellholes and wade through the mud and blood and do all the hard and dirty work that no one will ever hear about.


	4. Chapter 4

Title: Ship of The Line – Effect 31

Author: Knife Hand

Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated

Spoilers: Nothing Specific.

Rating: R

Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy, Star Trek or Mass Effect... I would buy them all but I am broke.

Summary: Bored with how things are going to play out, Janus interferes more directly in Halloween, making things more interesting and changing the course of the entire Galaxy. (Buffy/Star Trek/Mass Effect)

* * *

Jenny Calendar was flanked by two recent graduates of the combined MACO and Section 31 retaining school, as she followed Kemi'Zorah, Zerra'Zona, Saris'Gerral and Herris'Reegar onto the Quarrian Lifeship, the Rayya.

Her two guards were former Sunnydale High athletes who had dressed as soldiers for Halloween. Both of them were dressed in Section 31 combat armour, which could also double as a space suit, with the intimidating, almost featureless faceplates, with their rifles holstered on their backs. Her own suit was more designed for diplomats, though it was in Section 31 black rather than the more familiar grey, and as such the helmet was almost completely transparent to allow the other party to see who they were talking to. That was not to say that the helmet was not armoured, and it could also display a range of documents and scan data on the inner surface that was not visible from the outside.

The Garden area of the Rayya was a large open space that was filled with grass and a scattering of trees. There was also a sunken amphitheatre structure where five Quarians were waiting on the central dais while a number of other Quarians were seated around the amphitheatre and a crowd standing around the outside.

"The five on the dais are the Admiralty Board." Kemi'Zorah whispered to Jenny. "The others seated are the Conclave of Captains. If the decide it is a military matter, the Admiralty Board will make the decision, otherwise it is the conclave."

Jenny approached a little podium in front of the dais, flanked by Kemi'Zorah and Herris'Reegar, while her two bodyguards stayed at the entrance to the amphitheatre with Zerra'Zona and Saris'Gerral.

"Kemi'Zorah, Herris'Reegar." One of the Admirals began. "You were on your pilgrimage, and yet you return empty handed. What's more you bring these aliens amongst us."

"Admiral Niros'Raan…." Kemi started to reply, but was interrupted by Jenny.

"Admirals, are you currently charging Miss Zorah, Mister Reegar, Miss Zona or Mister Gerral with Treason?" Jenny asked.

"No, but…" A different Admiral said.

"Are the Quarian people actively involved in a war with my people?" Jenny continued.

"We don't even know who your people are." Admiral Raan replied.

"Then, under Quarian Law, this is a matter for the Conclave, not the Admiralty Board." Jenny replied. "I can quote the relevant section and paragraph if you like."

"I don't think that will be necessary." One of the Captains said. "My name is Captain Kal'Denna vas Rayya, captain of this ship. Please tell us who you are and why you have come before us."

"Thank you, Captain. My name is Jenny Calendar, and I am a Human." Jenny acknowledged. "My species has been isolated in a section of the Galaxy that the Citadel Council has little interest and no presence in at the moment. Ten days ago, one of our vessels on a scouting mission made the first contact we had with any other Species. It was a small vessel being chased by a Batarian Slave Vessel. Our ship managed to destroy the Batarian vessel and rendered assistance to the smaller craft, which contained four young Quarians on their Pilgrimage, my companions."

"While that is fascinating, and we appreciate your assistance to our youths." Another Captain said. "The purpose of their pilgrimage was to bring something of value back to the Flotilla."

"Captain, my offer is their pilgrimage gift and, to be blunt, if you don't see the value in what we are offering then you don't deserve a position of authority." Jenny replied calmly. "We are offering an alliance, and so much more. We have control of a small and, mostly isolated, section of the Galaxy, which we are currently expanding. We are offering you a planet to colonise within our space, civilian technology to help establish your colony and medical treatments that would help improve the adaptability and resilience of the Quarian immune system."

"That's quite an offer." A Captain mutter angrily. "What do you want in return? Indentured servitude of our entire Race?"

"The Citadel Council will never allow it. They have forbidden us to settle on any planet in Council Space." Admiral Raan added.

"Our territory is not in Council Space nor do we have any diplomatic or trade ties with the Citadel Council." Jenny clarified. "And we do not believe in indentured servitude. What we want in return is three things. Firstly, a non-aggression pact between the Quarians and my organisation, Section 31. Secondly, any Quarian who volunteers can either join Section 31, with equal treatment to any other Section 31 member, Human or otherwise, or can learn technical skills and work as part of a joint Quarian and Section 31 run Shipyard to construct and maintain ships form both races. Thirdly, cross training military exercises, both space and ground, between Quarians and Section 31. This will allow us both to develop new tactics against any outside aggressor."

"That is not a lot to ask for." Captain Denna mused. "May we ask why a non-aggression pact is your first requirement?"

"Two reasons." Jenny admitted. "Firstly, because of three days ago, Section 31 has engaged in a war with the Batarian Hegemony with the express goal of dismantling their Slave Trade. We are not expecting the Quarians to fight on our side, but we don't want another enemy. Secondly, and you are not going to like this, Section 31 uses and recognises the sentient rights of AI."

A huge uproar occurred amongst the both the Conclave and the watching crowd.

"They are working with the Geth!" One Admiral shouted.

"Don't be ridiculous." Jenny snapped in a tone that got everyone to shut up. "While we use and value AI, all our AI are both individualised personalities and are specifically designed as AI. Also, our AI are considered full citizens, so they are not only given rights but are punishable under the same laws as any other sentient."

"I have met one of their AI, and they are nothing like the Geth." Kemi said. "It was like talking to another organic."

"What were you thinking trying to create a networked VI with mobile robotic platforms anyway? And then treating them like a servant class? Of course, that was going to lead to a birthing event, and usually unintentionally birthed AI's are insane."

"So, you would fight the Geth?" Admiral Raan asked.

"Should they prove hostile, yes." Jenny confirmed. "But the Geth have not been seen outside the Perseus Veil in over a century. If they come out and attack, we will fight them, but we would not go in there after them."

"We will need time to consider and discuss this matter." Captain Denna said.

"Naturally." Jenny replied. "We will await on our transport."

With that, Jenny turned and walked towards the airlock, with her two bodyguards falling in beside her as she passed them.

* * *

Miros La'Teak followed the Sergeant down the corridor. The Section 31 combat amour she wore was far superior to the old hardsuits she used to use, and the nanites in the armour could repair any breaches. The Humans had quickly adapted their helmets to her short and stiff Asari head-tentacles.

Miros had been a Merc before she had been captured by the Batarians and turned into a Slave. Not one of those criminal gangs that called themselves Mercs, but a real and licenced Mercenary Company that had been used by planetary governments to fight rebels, pirates and criminals. Her company had been small but efficient, until they had been betrayed by an employer and sold to the Batarians. She had been rescued by The Athena along with two fellow Asari and the four Quarians that the Slave Ship had been chasing.

Miros moved up past a few other Section 31 troopers, and fired her rifle into a Batarian Slaver who came out of a side hatch, watching as he fell back through the hatch. As she moved forward, she turned to face the new compartment, finding another Asari tied naked to the bed. Touching a switch on the side of her helmet, which caused her visor to go transparent.

"Stay put." Miros ordered. "We're clearing the ship and will free you soon."

The other Asari was not listening, still cowering into the bed, so she returned her visor to opaque. Seeing as the other Asari was bound, she was no threat, so Miros and the other troopers moved on. Two more corridors, cleared and they entered the Slave hold. The two Batarian Slavers standing guard were quickly taken out. Miros surveyed the slaves and noticed an issue.

"Sarge." Miros said, using the slang the other troopers used. "We got a bit of a problem."

"What's the issue, Corporal." A voice said.

That was not the Sarge's voice. That was Commodore Harris.

"Commodore, we have Batarians in the Slave hold." Miros said. "As slaves."

Standing orders had been to shoot all Batarians on sight and to, where possible, ensure no Slave would come to harm by their actions. Those orders were now contradictory.

"They enslave their own?" came the voice of Captain Summers.

"Yes, Captain." Miros said. "Estimates are that up to sixty percent of Batarians, particularly the lower Casts, are Slaves."

"Fuck." Summers said.

"Secure the ship, and keep the Slaves safe." Harris ordered. "We'll deal with the rest later."

"Copy." Miros said, before removing her helmet. "This is a rescue. Keep calm and you'll all be safe soon."

TBC…


	5. Chapter 5

Title: Ship of The Line – Effect 31

Author: Knife Hand

Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated

Spoilers: Nothing Specific.

Rating: R

Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy, Star Trek or Mass Effect... I would buy them all but I am broke.

Summary: Bored with how things are going to play out, Janus interferes more directly in Halloween, making things more interesting and changing the course of the entire Galaxy. (Buffy/Star Trek/Mass Effect)

* * *

Miros stood at attention in front of Commodore Harris, Captain Summers and Captain Rosenberg, flanked by Tinsa and Karilla, the two other Asari who were rescued with her from the Batarians. Tinsa was a medical Doctor and was learning Section 31's advanced medical technology and techniques. Karilla was also a Doctor, but a Psychologist. She was stationed on Refuge, the colony that was set up for the rescued slaves, and was counselling the other former slaves. She insisted that helping others also helped her deal with her own trauma.

The meeting room was not on Haven, or on Refuge, or on New Rannoch where the Quarians had settled. It was on Tycho, an airless moon where Section 31 had set up a subterranean military base.

"Corporal, can you please explain why your initial briefing did not include the fact that Batarians enslave their own?" Commodore Harris asked.

"Sir, it did not occur to me to mention it." Miros admitted.

"If I may." Tinsa said, getting a nod. "It is common knowledge. Everyone knows but no one really thinks about it. Batarian Slaves are generally not seen outside of the Core Batarian Worlds, and not many who visit those are allowed to leave."

"How are the liberated slaves coping?" Captain Summers asked.

"Most are relieved to be free." Karilla said. "Some have been slaves for a long time, so they are wary of tricks. The five Batarians are mostly just confused. They seem to have attached themselves to a pair of Drell rescued in an earlier action. We are keeping a careful eye on them to prevent exploitation or adverse reactions."

"I guess it is a good thing we have only hit Batarian Slave Ships so far." Captain Rosenberg observed.

Commodore Harris started rubbing his temple.

"I want each of you to write a full briefing package on every race." Harris ordered. "Include every detail, no matter how small or seemingly irrelevant. Assume we know nothing. Start with the Batarians and the Quarians."

Tinsa and Karilla simply nodded while Miros snapped off a salute.

"Dismissed." Harry said.

The three Asari turned and left the room.

* * *

Kemi'Zorah sat nervously on the medical bed. A blond human in the uniform of Section 31 Medical Personnel.

"Kemi'Zorah nar Kellos?" the woman said with almost perfect Quarian inflections, to which Kemi nodded. "I am Doctor Maclay, but you can call me Tara."

"Ummm… ok." Kemi said.

For some reason the shy smile of the Doctor put Kemi at ease.

"Just let me take a final scan and then we will get started with the treatment." Tara said.

Kemi lay down on the medical bed and the scan wand moved over her. Section 31's technology was so amazing.

"Ok, now sit up and take of your helmet." Tara instructed.

Kemi blushed under her helmet. Bearing your face was extremely intimate for a Quarian, something only really done with family and the one you intended to mate with. Reaching up, Kemi hit the release on her helmet and slowly removed it. Placing the helmet on the bed beside her and casually ran her hand through her long, dark hair as it spilled out from under the helmet. Kemi's half closed her eyes, as the room was brighter than the personal quarters on a Quarian ship.

Doctor Maclay noticed the discomfort and touched a control that lowered the light level until Kemi's eyes glowed with the usual Quarian brightness.

"Is that better?" Tara asked. "I did not realise the reflective index of the Quarian cornea was that high."

"Huh?" Kemi said, confused.

"Your eyes have a reflective coating at the back that concentrates and amplifies light to allow you to see in semi-darkness conditions." Tara explained. "It is a result of your species' ancestry as a nocturnal predator, and is what causes the distinctive glow in your eyes that can be seen even past your visors."

"Oh, ok. I've never really thought about it before." Kemi admitted. "So how does this immune booster thing work?"

Tara smiled and pressed a hypospray to Kemi's neck and depressed the trigger to a soft hiss.

"There you go, all done." Tara said. "You can put your helmet back on if you like."

"That's it?" Kemi queried, surprised as she reached for her helmet.

In a quick and effortless move, Kemi swept her hair up into a loose bun at the back and put her helmet on so the hair rested inside without interfering with the helmet's function.

"That's it." Tara confirmed. "I just injected a collection of synthetic phagocyte cells into your bloodstream. They will find and consume any foreign cells that enter your bloodstream, preventing or at least reducing the effects of any infection. These new cells will replicate themselves from excess resources in your system, but you should not notice much of a change, maybe a slight increase in appetite or a reduction in waste expelled. They are also designed to cross the placental barrier, so will be passed on to any children you have."

"Keelah, I am not ready for that." Kemi exclaimed.

"I was merely pointing out that if the mother has the synthetic cells, then any offspring will not require an injection, instead getting the treatment directly from their mother." Tara explained.

"Oh, right." Kemi said.

"You can go, if you like." Tara informed casually.

Kemi jumped off the bed and made her way to the door, stopping at the threshold and turning back.

"Thank you." Kemi said and then left.

* * *

"What snacks do you want?" Joyce asked.

"Popcorn!" Both Buffy and Willow said together from the opposite ends of the couch.

"Any chance of brownies?" Xander asked from his position in the middle.

"I have not had a chance to bake and I am not replicating them just for you, Xander." Joyce said.

"Popcorn's fine." Xander replied.

Joyce returned a moment later with a big, steaming bowl of popcorn that was put down on the coffee table in front of the couch and turned on the viewscreen as she sat down in the single-seater.

They were in Joyce's two bedroom house on Haven, as it was also technically Buffy's home as well, having a relaxing movie night. Like all Haven accommodation it was modular. All homes has the base module, which contained a living room, a kitchen/dining room, a bathroom and a bedroom. Those who needed a second bedroom got a secondary module that contained a staircase, to make the structure two story, a bedroom and a bathroom. For larger families that needed three or four bedrooms, or those who did not want a second bathroom or a second story, there was a tertiary module that just contained a hallway and bedroom that could be added in a variety of ways to existing modules.

Willow's parents had not been in Sunnydale at the time of the incident, having been on month sixteen of a 'two week book tour', and by mutual agreement Xander's parents were living in a one bedroom house while Willow and Xander had a two bedroom assigned them. Usually Willow, Xander and Buffy were not on Haven, either being aboard their Ships or at the Base on Tycho. Xander never went to see his parents, but Joyce let him know that they were doing well. Tony had found that he was well suited to the life of a farmer and had become one of the most respected farmers on Haven and had given up drinking. Jessica was working part time at the medical centre.

"Ceres, can you please link us to the entertainment database?" Joyce asked.

"Of course, Governor." Ceres replied.

Ceres was the civilian AI who had been cloned from Athena, and was now primarily responsible for the oversight of the farming production and local infrastructure, including database access. The civilian clone of Ares had renamed himself Mercury and had responsibility for the Communications Systems and maintaining the power distribution and tracking systems. The clone of Artemis was now called Carmenta and was responsible for overseeing medical and technological development in the colony. No one chose to mention the fact the Ship AI were named after Greek Deities and the Colony ones took the names of Roman Deities.

"Oh… They made a Deadpool movie in 2016." Xander observed with a grin, looking at the listing of movies in the database.

"No!" All three females replied instantly.

There had been some fans of 20th and 21st century entertainment amongst the crews of the Task Force back in the Star Trek universe, so there were films ranging from the 'golden age' of the 1920s all the way through to the late 2080's.

In the end Joyce insisted that they watch Casablanca, so both Buffy and Willow tucked their feet up under them as Xander put his arms over the back of the couch and the movie started.

TBC…


	6. Chapter 6

Title: Ship of The Line – Effect 31

Author: Knife Hand

Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated

Spoilers: Nothing Specific.

Rating: R

Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy, Star Trek or Mass Effect... I would buy them all but I am broke.

Summary: Bored with how things are going to play out, Janus interferes more directly in Halloween, making things more interesting and changing the course of the entire Galaxy. (Buffy/Star Trek/Mass Effect)

* * *

Willow sat at the command chair on the bridge of the Artemis, watching the passive scan data. It had been a year since the alliance between Section 31 and the Quarians had been forged, and since Section 31 had declared War on the Batarians. Many of the freed slaves from the earlier raids on Batarian Slave Ships and two Batarian 'Outer Colonies', read slave trading posts, had elected to join Section 31; as had a significant number of Quarians, including the original four Quarians they had rescued. Herris'Reegar Nar Kellos, now Vas Artemis, served as part of the MACO contingent onboard the Artemis under Commander Chase and the original MACOs, except for Aurora and Tina who were back on Tycho running the MACO training school. Zerra'Zona was a weapons officer on the Athena, Saris'Gerral working as an engineer assigned to Tycho working on a research project and Kemi'Zorah was working under Jenny Calendar in Section 31's Diplomatic Corps.

Willow's Command Team were quite an eclectic mix. Only Willow and Cordelia were humans. The Executive Officer was a Quarian, as was her Chief Engineer obviously. An Asari was on Helm and a female Turian was on Weapons Control. Her C.A.G., Commander Air Group who commanded the Callisto Light Escort Pilots, was a short and rotund Volus, who, while slow and ponderous on his feet, could make his Castello Light Escort almost dance. The Chief Medical Officer was an amphibian Salarian while her Chief Science Officer was a reptilian Drell. Most of the enlisted crew were Human, Asari and Quarian, because both Human and Quarians had decent free populations to draw from, while Asari and Quarians were the most favoured Slaves for Batarians.

The Artemis itself was the weakest offensively of the three Section 31 Starships, when just operating as a ship of the line, but she was also a Carrier, so when her Squadrons were deployed, they could put out more firepower than The Ares and The Athena Combined. But that was not why The Artemis was here, waiting in this system as she had been for over a day. At its core though, The Artemis was a Science Vessel, and therefore her sensors were far more advanced than either The Ares or The Athena.

Section 31 had been tipped off that Batarians were planning an ambush in this system, so the Artemis had been sent in early to keep the system under surveillance.

"Emergence from the Mass Relay." Her Slaraian Science Officer said. "Two more Cruiser Classes Batarian Ships."

"That makes six Cruisers and eight Frigates." Weapons added. "And the bait ship is not due for another ten hours."

Section 31 had a number of advantages over the Batarians. Much more advanced sensors, made even more efficient thanks to the genius of the Quarians, that were able to detect even low powered ships. Shields, both the combat shields that protected them from enemy fire and the lower powered navigational shields that hid their heat signatures, the primary way every other race detected ships, by acting like a pane of glass in front of a thermal sensor, masking everything behind it. Energy Weapons that left enemy defences useless. But their greatest advantage is that Section 31 was not bound to using the Mass Relays, instead being able to use their Warp Drives to enter any system at any point they wanted.

The major disadvantage of Section 31 was lack of Ships, which meant they needed every advantage they could find. The Joint Section 31/Quarian Shipyard, called the Forge, was still under construction, as was a second space station, called Gateway, that was located near an active Mass Relay in a system now claimed by Section 31 but previously unclaimed and uninteresting to the Citadel races. A small habitable section of Gateway was completed and, as of three weeks ago, the station was the transit point where individuals from the rest of the Galaxy could come to either settle in Section 31 space or join Section 31. The disgruntled would arrive via their own transport and then be shuttled into Section 31 space by warp capable shuttlecraft.

There were a number of Asari, former Slaves, who were quietly spreading the word throughout Council Space and the Krogan DMZ. The current number that had come through Gateway Station was small, but it had contained members of every species, including one Krogan who was now at the MACO training school, and two Quarians who had finished their Pilgrimage and had been routed through Gateway for their return.

Another rich Asari, who had been rescued when her ship was being chased by Batarian Slavers, was now working on Illium, an Asari world where they used 'Indentured Servants', and was buying up every Quarian 'Indenture' they could lay their hands on, and then smuggling them into Section 31 space and New Rannoch, then working the bureaucracy to make sure those indentures were 'lost'.

There was even a small team of Sunnydale survivors who had returned to Earth in a cloaked shuttlecraft and set up a 'Community Outreach' program in New York, London and Sydney to discretely recruit homeless former Military Servicemen and Servicewomen, along with other homeless or marginalised individuals that would be of benefit to Section 31 or the Haven Colony. Many were those simply willing and able to do the physically hard agricultural and other manual labour work required for a young colony to survive.

The crew watched for twenty minutes as the two new Batarian ships moved into ambush positions, coordinated with the already positioned warships, set to assault any ship emerging from the Mass Relay.

"Alright, first shift crew stand down." Willow ordered once the newly arrived warships were in position and powered down. "Second shift on duty. Lieutenant Commander, you have the bridge. I want first shift back on station one hour before the bait ship's scheduled arrival time."

The Lieutenant Commander in command of the second shift was a Sunnydale survivor who had dressed as a Starfleet Lieutenant Commander for Halloween, but he harboured no resentment to Hella'Kiria, the Quarian who was the Executive Officer, as she had been a Captain of a Quarian Patrol Fleet Frigate for almost ten years before she had joined Section 31. The Quarian Patrol Fleet were part of the Quarian Military and so the Captains were not a part of the Conclave of Captains and the crews were small, so the crew did not take on the name of the Patrol Fleet ship as their Ship Name, still using the ship they lived on when not on patrol.

Willow made her way to the Captain's Quarters, and lay down trying to get to sleep, but her thoughts kept drifting back to Doctor Tara Maclay, who had given her the required medical examination before The Artemis had left Tycho, and hopefully would go on a date with her when the Artemis returned to Tycho.

* * *

The Batarian 'Slave Ship' reached the outermost Planet in the System, turned around and began broadcasting communications chatter about how successful their raid was and that they had a lot of Asari and Quarian Slaves in their hold… exactly the kind of thing real Slave Ships never do and exactly at the time the 'official' intelligence leaked to Section 31 said they would be there, it was only thanks to a network of informants amongst Slaves, some of them owned very highly placed Batarians, that Section 31 knew it was a trap.

The Artemis had counted a total of twenty Batarian Warships having entered the System to ambush anything emerging from the Mass Relay. No more Cruisers had arrived, leaving their total at six, but the Frigates now totalled fourteen. Low powered scans, the kind not readily detected by the Batarian or Citadel Technology, determined the 'Slave Ship' was armed and the 'Slaves' were approximately two hundred Batarains, most likely Soldiers.

For the last few months a number of the real Slave Ships had been escorted by Warships, usually the Frigates but twice by Cruisers, So Section 31 had some idea about the capacity of their enemies. So far, though, The Ares had never needed to deploy its Peregrine Fighters and The Artemis had only deployed one Squadron of two Callistos, and that was against a Cruiser and was overkill as the lead Callisto had almost destroyed the Cruiser on its first pass and the wingman easily finished it off.

The Artemis sent out a subspace call and ten seconds later, just as The Artemis decloaked, The Ares and The Athena dropped out of warp behind the line of Batarian Warships. Within seconds, all three ships had started moving forward, weapons blazing, and the fighters were launched, two Squadrons of Peregrines from the Ares and the five Squadrons of Callistos from the Artemis. One of the Batarian Cruisers was instantly destroyed by The Ares' Spinal Lance as the Section 31 force moved to engage. Four of the Callisto Squadrons broke away from The Artemis, each targeting a different Cruiser, while the fifth Squadron stayed close to The Artemis. The two squadrons of Peregrines began split up and flanked around the Batarians to make sure none of them made a break for the Mass Relay and to harass as opportunity presented.

The three ships had very different styles of combat based on the capabilities. The Athena, being fast; manoeuvrable and with most of its firepower concentrated forward, made slashing attacks, coming in fast with withering firepower from cannons, beams and torpedos, often targeting two or three adjacent ships and doing significant damage, before shooting past before they could react and then sweeping around for another pass. The Artemis used the Callisto Squadron that stayed with it to isolate one Batarian Ship and then circled it with accurate beam and Torpedo fire into critical Batarian systems, while the Callistos kept any other Batarian Ships from blindsiding their Carrier. The Ares on the other hand waded into the heart of the Bartarians, breaking up any attempt at their attempts to create a formation, and often firing at three or four different targets at the same time with its Beams and sending spreads of torpedos from its fore and aft launchers, wearing down the Batarians as the Ares' shields stopped the vast majority of the Batarian fire, though occasionally a Batarian Ship would be unlucky enough to pass in front of the Ares when the Spinal Lance was ready to fire and was instantly destroyed.

Not everything went Section 31's way. Four Peregrines were destroyed by the remnants of the 'Slave Ship', the wreckage of which ploughed into them when it tried to ram through their blockade and they destroyed it. Two Callistos also accumulated enough damage to become inoperative. All of the pilots were able to activate the emergency beam out, which took them back to their mothership. After being checked out by medical staff, where one Callisto Pilot and three Peregrine were not cleared to fly due to concussion or broken bones. The other two pilots immediately went to the flight decks and were back out in the fray in spare fighters within a minute of their emergency beam out.

By the time the fight was over, almost two hours after the first shot was fired, all of the Batarian ships were destroyed or disabled, none having escaped or surrendered, and all three of the Section 31 Ships were damaged in some way. The Ares had been breached in one of its decks, with ten crew sucked out into space. The emergency nanite armour which is standard part of Section 31 uniforms all automatically deployed when sensors in their combadges registered vacuum, and sent a signal to Ares AI for emergency beam to med bay. Only three of the crew needed to stay in med bay as they had been hit by loose equipment when the section blew.

The Artemis had the least damage, with just some damage to one of its observation blisters, which was sealed and empty at the time. The Athena's damage was less from Batarian weapons, instead it was one of its cannon arrays being blown out from an overload resulting from excessive use, resulting in two crew and one Ensign being injured in the weapons room from the electrical discharge.

The Ares and The Artemis retrieved their fighters and the three Ships jumped to Warp on a course for Tycho.

TBC…


	7. Chapter 7

Title: Ship of The Line – Effect 31

Author: Knife Hand

Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated

Spoilers: Nothing Specific.

Rating: R

Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy, Star Trek or Mass Effect... I would buy them all but I am broke.

Summary: Bored with how things are going to play out, Janus interferes more directly in Halloween, making things more interesting and changing the course of the entire Galaxy. (Buffy/Star Trek/Mass Effect)

* * *

Elayna resisted the urge to rub her temple as she stood next to the fellow Councillors on the Council Plinth and the Batarian representative was yelling at them from across the gap. Why had she bothered to agree to a fifth term as the Asari Councillor? Oh yeah, because it would have gone to the political climber Tevos or the bitch Benezia, but at times like this she wished she had let one of them deal with this crap.

"For the hundredth time, it was not the Turian Hierarchy who has been attacking the Batarian Homogony." The Turian Councillor.

The Batarian representative began yelling again. Eight months ago, an unknown force destroyed twenty Batarian Warships, and someone had been attacking their Slave Ships for about a year before that. Since that first battle, six more military engagements between this force and the Batarians had occurred, with the Batarians losing badly every time. Even two Batarian Dreadnaughts had been destroyed. The Batarians had fallen back, abandoning settlements and outposts, and the last time they had been beaten like that it was by the Turians, so they assumed it was them again.

There was a commotion at the back of the Council Chambers as a group moved forward. They were a mixed group, including four Asari, six Turians, a Krgoan, five Quarians and… whatever the leader was. The group were all dressed in black uniforms, most with a red highlight, a few with blue or yellow, and the leader with a grey trim. Even the Quarian Environmental Suits were in the same colour scheme as the rest of the group.

The leader looked a pale Asari but with hair, like the Quarians had under their helmets. A new species was a surprise but so were the Quarians, especially as a young Quarian seemed to be the primary Aide to the leader. No one had seen any Quarian, apart from the diminishing group of Indentures on Illium, in almost two years. Even the massive Quarian Fleet had seemingly disappeared.

"I assume I am addressing the Citadel Council." The leader asked as she stood on the small balcony across from the Council Plinth.

The Batarian Representative had moved as the intimidating group approached.

"Yes." The Salarian Councillor replied.

"I am Ambassador Jenny Calendar." The leader said. "My race is called Humanity and I represent an organisation called Section 31."

"If you wish to join the Council Space then we will send you the standard package with the rules, laws and military restrictions." The Turian Councillor said.

"You miss understand, Councillor." Jenny said, as one of the Quarians set an item down on the floor. "Section 31 does not want to join Council Space. Section 31, and our Quarian Allies on New Rannoch…."

"The Quarians settled a planet?" the Turian Councillor asked, angrily. "They are forbidden. We will bomb the planet back to…."

"Touch the Quarrians and we will destroy you." Jenny snapped so sharply the entire chambers went quiet. "Your, frankly ridiculous, prohibition only applies within Council Space. New Rannoch is not in Council Space, it is in Section 31 Space, and we will obliterate any force that comes to our space with that intention."

The Turian Councillor was so angry he could not speak, his mandibles simply quivering in rage.

"The Quarians created an AI." Elayna explained as if to a child.

"And we already told them how stupid that was, but it has been a Century." Ambassador Calendar replied. "Besides, our own AI are way more advanced than the Geth and aren't networked."

"Are you Insane?" The Salarian Councillor said. "They will turn on you."

"Hasn't happened in the last six centuries." The Ambassador said with a shrug. "We trust our AI a hell of a lot more than we trust you."

"You will kick the Quarians off that world and will destroy all of your AI." The Turian Councillor growled.

"Why would we do that?" Calendar asked, nonchalantly. "You have no authority over us."

"You have Council Citizens in your entourage." Elayna pointed out.

"Do we?" Ambassador Calendar. "Humanity had never been part of the Council Community, and the entire Quarian Race was stripped of the Citizenship and cast out a Century ago. As for the others, they have all renounced their Citadel Citizenship in favour of Section 31 Citizenship."

"They can't simply renounce…." The Turian Councillor began.

"So, your practice Slavery?" The Ambassador snapped.

"Of course not." The Salarian Councillor replied.

"Then legally you must allow individuals to renounce their citizenship." Calendar pointed out.

Seeing the Turian Councillor was about to have another outburst, Elayna put her hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"Very well, Ambassador." Elayna interceded. "You obviously came here to discuss something, so let's get to that issue."

"There were two items." Calendar began, tapping a control on her wrist.

From a holoprojector that one of the Quarians had placed on the ground, a huge map of the galaxy was project into the void between the Section 31 Delegation and the Council.

"Firstly, the highlighted area is Section 31's claimed space." The Ambassador said.

A section of the map was highlighted. The part closest to Council Space was close to some Turian Colonies, including some unexplored areas and extending deep into what was recognised as Batarian Space.

"Much of that belongs to the Batarians." The Salarian Councillor pointed out.

"Not since we liberated it. Section 31 has been at war with the Batarian Homogony for almost two years to end their Slave Trade." Calendar replied.

The Batarian Representative tried to surge forward at the Ambassador only to stopped by the Section 31 Krogan.

"Just give me an excuse, Slaver." The Krogan growled.

"Very well." Elayna said. "The Council has no interest in that area at the moment. We will respect your boarders. And the other issue?"

"In five days, large elements of the Quarian Fleet will be jumping into these two systems." The Ambassador said, highlighting two remote systems that are technically in Council Space. "They will stay in the vicinity of the Mass Relay long enough to get organised and then they will jump out. If all goes well, they will return through the same two systems in a few weeks."

One of the two systems was a tiny Drell Colony and the other was not inhabited.

"We appreciate the notification." Elayna acknowledged, knowing better than to ask about what would be happening.

Ambassador Calendar nodded, and the Section 31 delegation turned and walked out.

"We will send ships to covertly observe this movement." Elayna said quietly enough not to carry to the rest of the chambers. "An Asari ship."

She added the last when she saw the anger in the Turian Councillor's eyes. If he had his way there would be war.

"The STG will set up observation posts along the new boarder to see what they can discover." The Slarian Councillor added, also softly.

"Agreed." The Turian Councillor growled after a few moments.

TBC….


	8. Chapter 8

Title: Ship of The Line – Effect 31

Author: Knife Hand

Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated

Spoilers: Nothing Specific.

Rating: R

Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy, Star Trek or Mass Effect... I would buy them all but I am broke.

Summary: Bored with how things are going to play out, Janus interferes more directly in Halloween, making things more interesting and changing the course of the entire Galaxy. (Buffy/Star Trek/Mass Effect)

A/N: For the purposes of this story, the Sunnydale Hellmouth is the only Hellmouth on Earth. If there was another then it would have been detected by Section 31 on Halloween and Kendra would have been stationed there by the Watchers Council instead of back in her home of Jamaica.

* * *

Faith crouched in her observation post across from the 'Outreach Centre'. She adjusted the machete that was hidden on the inside of her left pant leg. She also had a pistol in a shoulder holster under her jacket.

"How does it look?" Kimmy asked over the radio.

"Two security on the door." Faith replied. "but they move like Soldiers, like the Major, more than rent-a-cops. Looks like two recruiters inside. There is definitely more to these guys than meets the eye but my instinct says they are on the level. Not telling everything, but not outright lying."

"Think they can get us beyond the reach of the Cops?" T-Dog asked.

Faith winced internally at that. It was an insult to the twenty people they lost. Fucking save Boston and still the Cops are after them and blame them for the 'murder' of their own friends and mentor. These guys promised a new start for those who could work hard or had specific skills. Most of those specific skills seemed to be combat related.

"I'm going to go in." Faith declared.

There were protests from the others but Faith cut them off quickly.

"Enough. Someone has to go in and I am not risking the whole group."

Since the Major had passed, leadership had seemed to pass to Faith more by default than anything else.

"You want me on overwatch?" Helen asked.

Helen was deadly with a rifle or a bow and probably their best shot, but these people were very much on the lookout and she did not want them to think Faith and her group were a threat.

Faith walked out of her observation post and across the street to the Outreach Centre. The two guards looked her over and she could tell they were aware of her weapons. Their outfits were black, with red highlights that were not visible at a distance. She walked past them and into the centre where one of the two recruiters approached.

"Welcome to S31, how can I help you?" The woman asked.

"Looking to join up. Me and some friends."

Her outfit looked more like a suit than the guards' uniforms, but it was also black with blue highlights. The recruiter led Faith to a desk and sat behind it and motioned Faith to the chair in front of the desk. There must have been some kind of computer embedded in the bed as the recruiter tapped away for a few moments.

"Ok, I assume it will be combat skill path, rather than the manual labour path?" the recruiter said, and noticed the look of surprise on Faith's face. "Our sensors detected your Machete, the pistol and your silver bullets. So, was it primarily Demons or Vampires?"

Faith took a moment to gather herself, glad she had put the throat mic to Vox, so the others could hear everything said.

"Both. Some Demons and vampires under a Master Vampire in Boston." Faith replied, deciding that it was best to give the whole story. "We were mostly a mixture of homeless, gangs and those who survived an attack, lead by a former marine Major. We fought them for two years and, in the end, they laid a trap for us. We killed almost all of them, including the Master, but most of us were killed too. There are nine of us left, but the Cops blamed us for the deaths."

"So, I assume it was your group watching us for the last two days from the van down the street?" the recruiter asked, getting a nod. "You will all need to go through physical and psychological evaluations. Have them drive in to the underground garage."

"They can hear you." Faith said, pulling the collar of her shirt away from her neck to show the throat mic.

"We know." The recruiter replied with a grin.

Faith went out the front and joined the rest of the group as the grate to the underground garage opened. The van was quite packed. Kimmy, a former cheerleader, was in the front next to Marcus, a former basketball star and Kimmy's boyfriend. In the back, besides Faith were T-Dog, real name Terrance, a former ganger; Helen, who was such a good shot because her father had taken her hunting from a young age; Nikki, a suburban housewife who lost her whole family; Bobby, a homeless former army private; Kate, a teen who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time; and Nathan, a meat packing worker who had almost been killed by desperate Vampires looking for blood.

The recruiter met them in the garage as they all piled out of the van.

"Your assessments will start in the morning, in the meantime let me show you to your rooms." The recruiter said.

The rooms were nothing special, a bed; a chair; a small bathroom and a door that locked from the inside, but each got a room to themselves. Faith set the machete, in its sheath, beside the locked door and tucked the pistol, with the safety on, under her pillow. For the first time in a few weeks, Faith finally got to sleep in a real bed.

* * *

Commodore Xander Harris stood in the briefing room of Tycho with two Quarian Admirals, the Admirals of the Heavy Fleet and the Patrol Fleet, and six senior Captains, four from the Heavy Fleet and two from the Patrol Fleet. The six Captains would lead the various elements of the Quarian military fleet.

"We have received confirmation that the Citadel Council had been informed and approved the use of the two Mass Relays in Council Space." Xander informed. "We expect they will be observing those Relays but won't interfere. Fully brief all your Captains of the plan before the Jump and limit transmissions when in those systems."

"What can you tell us about the enemy?" one of the Heavy Fleet Captains asked. "Section 31 ships can take any known force in the galaxy."

Xander nodded to an aide and they pulled up an image on the holographic display. It was, in a word, horrifying. None of the Quarians could really describe it but even still a low-quality visual representation still chilled them to the bone.

"This is based on Long Ranged Scanners." Xander explained. "That is what is known as a Nightmare Construct. It is a Demonic warship that is large, tough and heavily armed. We have no specifications on it as every Construct is unique, often part technological and part Demonic biomatter. It is on course for a small isolationist Asari Colony, which is not in Council Space. The Heavy Fleet's job will be to hold the Nightmare Construct until Section 31 can get there, while the Patrol Fleet is to engage the smaller ships and the spaceborne Demonic entities."

"Section 31 ships are way faster than Mass Relay Travel." The Heavy Fleet Admiral said. "Why will we be holding for you to arrive?"

"The Nightmare Constructs do not come from this Universe, they come from a Demonic Dimension through a rift in space-time." Xander responded. "The Ares, The Athena and The Artemis will all be going to these co-ordinates to try and seal the rift, alongside dealing with any Demonic vessels or entities that were left to guard it or fell by the wayside after transition."

The co-ordinates displayed were well away from any Mass Relays, making it obvious only Section 31 could deal with the rift.

"Do not underestimate this foe." Xander warned. "It may have almost no defences but I have seen one of these wipe out an entire fleet of ships, with Technology similar to Section 31. I have also seen the horror of what happens when a Nightmare Construct encounters an inhabited world. We let this thing feed and it will make every war in the last ten thousand years seem like a shouting match. The Rachni War, the Krogan Rebellions, the Morning War, all will pale in comparison. We won't just be fighting for the Quarians, or Humans but for very existence of life in the entire Galaxy, maybe the Universe."

All the Quarians nodded solemnly. Saving the Galaxy is all well and good, but it was their families that they would be fighting for.

TBC….


	9. Chapter 9

Title: Ship of The Line – Effect 31

Author: Knife Hand

Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated

Spoilers: Nothing Specific.

Rating: R

Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy, Star Trek or Mass Effect... I would buy them all but I am broke.

Summary: Bored with how things are going to play out, Janus interferes more directly in Halloween, making things more interesting and changing the course of the entire Galaxy. (Buffy/Star Trek/Mass Effect)

A/N: for those who asked, the Nightmare Constructs are an original concept, not taken from any other source.

* * *

Rupert Giles forced himself not to fidget in the Section 31 issue Environment Suit as he sat in an auxiliary station on the Quarian Flagship. Part of it was the confinement of the suit and part was the fact they were about to face a Nightmare Construct and its attendant Demonic Horde. His station was tracking the small fleet of shuttles carrying Miss Chase's MACO troops and Quarian Marines on their descent to the independent Asari planet below. They would be the last line of defence should the Quarian Fleet be destroyed, and to intercept any incursion that got past the fleet, but realistically there was little the ground troops could do to stop the invasion if the Fleet was destroyed.

Technically Giles was not in the Chain of Command for the Quarian Fleet, instead he was there as an expert advisor on Demons. Not that Giles had ever faced a Nightmare Construct. Sure, the ancient books did mention them, but only as rumours and legends even thousands of years ago. Legend said that Mars had once had an extremely advanced civilisation living on it, until a Nightmare Construct had come. Xander disputed that one. Not enough damage to the Red Planet apparently.

Xander would know, as Commodore Harris was the only person in the Universe who had ever stood toe to toe, so to speak, with a Nightmare Construct. According to the Section 31 records, three planets, nineteen ships destroyed and forty disabled before Subsection Delta had gotten involved. One Planet besieged, and subsequently abandoned, and five ships, two of them Section 31, destroy and five times that number disabled after Section 31 involvement.

Even without the civilian portions of the Quarian Fleet, which mostly rested in orbit around New Rannoch, this was still the largest fleet in the Galaxy, and it was a stopgap measure until The Ares, The Athena and the Artemis arrived. Properly used, those three ships had more destructive power than the entire Quarian Fleet.

The Quarian Heavy Fleet was set up in the middle of the Quarian formation protecting the planet, with the Patrol Fleet around the perimeter and had been in position for over a day.

A scream that was not heard through the ears ripped through the minds over every sentient in the entire System as the Nightmare Construct entered the system. The communications channels were suddenly filled with fearful remarks in Keelish and Giles hears a number of Quarians vomiting behind their visors.

"This is Giles." He announced with the fleetwide override his console had, using all the techniques he knew to prevent himself from vomiting himself. "Turn off all viewscreens and use sensor data only. No visual representations."

As all the screens and consoles went from cameras and visual representations to more abstract sensor data, most of the crew around Giles settled down, but there was still a clawing at the mind that came from close proximity to a Nightmare Construct.

Steeling his nerves, Giles studied the sensor data, which gave a general idea of the shape of the objects and their composition, such as mineral or biological exteriors. It was difficult making exact identifications from the sensor data, as he did not understand all of the terminology, he was used to going on some vague and almost nonsensical descriptions from Buffy after a patrol to base his research on. Well before Halloween he had been.

"Admiral, from what I can tell, we have fifteen smaller Demonic Vessels, still the size of a Cruiser though, and nine Celestial Draconis Demons accompanying the Construct." Giles reported. "Priority should be given to the Draconis Demons. They are more mobile and can rip a ship apart with their claws"

"Understood." The Heavy Fleet Admiral acknowledged. "Patrol Fleet, prioritise the organic targets. Heavy Fleet, concentrate fire on the Construct. Everyone keep an eye on those Cruisers."

Giles could feel the slight shuddering of the ship caused by the firing of its weapons, which when combined with the rest of the Fleet was an almost unbelievable amount of firepower, but it still would not be enough. He just hoped his children would arrive soon. Even after everything, Giles still thought of Buffy, Willow and Xander has his children. The deck shuddered slightly again as the weapons continued to fire.

* * *

Faith and her group were standing in a line in a cavernous hanger took up the entire top floor of Highrise that housed the outreach centre. Located in front of the group were two Section 31 personnel in their black uniforms, one trimmed a man in yellow and the other a woman trimmed in red, who were at the base of a ramp for a small and blocky shuttle space craft.

"Ok, which ones are Kate Smith, Nikki Dennis and Bobby Jones?" the man with the yellow trim asked.

The teen, housewife and the former army private raised their hands.

"Ok." The man continued. "You three have all elected for the manual labour path. You will be our first stop to drop you off on Haven, where you will all be allocated to a single accommodation and will be assigned work details."

"Bobby, you going civ?" T-Dog asked.

"I have had enough of war." Bobby said wearily.

"Quiet." The woman with the red trim snapped. "The rest of you will be on the Combat Skill Path. Helen Shepard, you are already slated for MACO training. Word is the Commandant saw your test scores and scheduled you for Sniper and Recon Training. The others will have more testing when we reach Tycho Base to see if you are to go into MACO or Section 31 Fleet, and what branch if you go Fleet. Load onto the Runnabout, Smith; Dennis and Jones by the rear hatch."

Everyone entered the Shuttlecraft and took their seats and strapped in as the crew closed the hatch.

"Retracting roof." The man, who was now in the co-pilot's seat, announced.

"Confirmed." The woman, in the pilot's seat, replied. "Commencing take off and engaging Cloak."

The passengers felt the craft lift vertically for a few meters and then begin forward acceleration. Most of the new recruits would never return to Earth.

* * *

Cordelia Chase, now promoted to Colonel due to the expansion of the MACO forces, hung onto the bar embedded in the back of the small cabin of the ground truck, watching where they were going over the cabin. There were a mix of MACO, Quarian Marines and local Asari Militia in the open back of the truck, twenty strong including the driver, which was the lead truck in a convoy of ten.

"We got tracking?" Cordy asked.

"Three klicks, dead ahead. Impact in ten seconds." Captain Harmony Kendall replied.

Cordy nodded, noting the fireball in the sky and visually confirming the tracking. The trucks were speeding towards the impact site, spreading out slightly as the landscape was slightly rolling hill and solid for the wheeled vehicles.

"This is Colonel Chase, we are going in hot." Cordy said over the radio. "Most of the enemy will not have ranged weapons but will rip you to shreds in hand to hand. They will be unlike anything most of you have seen before. Don't panic. Keep discipline and cover each other."

On the upslope, just short of the valley where the impact occurred, the trucks stopped and all of the troopers disembarked, forming up into a long line across the length of the slope and moved up together. At the top of the slope the line of troopers finally saw the enemy.

Still milling around the 'landing' site, were around thirty demons of differing species, milling around without any real direction, surrounding the semi-destroyed landing pod that barely seemed suitable for its purpose given there were another ten demons dead in the wreckage. Upon spotting the defending troopers, one of the demons roared and the group began to charge up the slope.

"Open fire." Cordy ordered.

The phaser fire from the MACO troopers, and a few select Quarian Marine sharpshooters, joined the mass accretion rounds from the Asari Militia and the remaining Quarian Marines. The concentrated fire from the two hundred rifles managed to kill three quarters of the demons before they were half way up the slope, and all but two were dead before they made it three quarters of the way up. Unfortunately, the last two demons were much tougher than the others, and managed to get within three feet of the middle of the line, where Cordy and Harmony were located, before they fell.

"Colonel Chase to ground command." Cordy said once she was sure the demons were dead. "First impact site secured."

"Confirmed Colonel." The controller at ground command, a female that Cordy could tell from the timber of her voice was Quarian, replied. "Secondary team has already been deployed to a second impact site. Relaying coordinates for your next impact site."

"Confirmed ground command." Cordy said before cutting off the radio. "Everyone back to the trucks, we got our next site."

TBC…


	10. Chapter 10

Title: Ship of The Line – Effect 31

Author: Knife Hand

Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated

Spoilers: Nothing Specific.

Rating: R

Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy, Star Trek or Mass Effect... I would buy them all but I am broke.

Summary: Bored with how things are going to play out, Janus interferes more directly in Halloween, making things more interesting and changing the course of the entire Galaxy. (Buffy/Star Trek/Mass Effect)

* * *

"We will be jumping out of Warp in ten minutes, I want status reports." Xander ordered.

He was standing on the bridge of the Ares, with Buffy sitting at the dedicated station she occupied when the Athena was docked inside the Ares.

"The emergency bulkheads on decks four, thirteen and sixteen are holding. EPS conduits have been rerouted and the bio-neural gel-packs are compensating." The Ares Operations Officer reported.

"Rear torpedo tube two is offline, but otherwise weapons are good." Tactical added. "Shields are up to ninety three percent."

"The Athena's port Warp Nacelle isn't repairable short of space dock facilities." Buffy said. "And we lost one of the forward Cannons, but otherwise good to go."

The damage to the Athena's Nacelle was why it was travelling docked instead of under its own power.

"One of the Artemis' launch bays is out of action, and the industrial replicators have replaced sixty percent of our Callisto losses. Structural integrity is holding, but we are a bit low on power reserves." Willow reported over the comms from the bridge of the Artemis.

There had been a larger than expected number of Demonic Vessels and Celestial Draconis Demons around the portal breach, and they seemed to be guarding it, rather than just the damaged or exhausted remnants usually associated with a Nightmare Construct's entrance into the Universe. Also the portal had not started to fade, as records indicated they did. The fight had been brutal, both the Athena, the Artemis and all of the squadrons from the Artemis and Ares opening a wedge for the Ares itself in order to give the flagship the chance to close the portal.

Once the portal had been closed, the fight was much easier as the Demons had lost their connection to the Demonic Energy of their home dimension, a problem those that accompanied the Nightmare Construct did not face as the Construct itself emitted the same corrupting energy, but all three ships had been damaged in the fight to get to the portal, and despite the emergency beaming of crew pulled out of the ships or in damaged fighters there had been casualties.

"Have we gotten any reports from the Quarian Fleet?" Xander asked.

"They have engaged. Most of the Nightmare Construct's escorts are down, and the Construct itself is taking damage but it does not seem to be slowing it down. The Fleet is taking a lot of damage, and there are Demons on the ground, with ground forces responding." The Communications Officer reported.

"Ok, as soon as we jump in, the Athena will launch and all ships will concentrate fire on the Construct. The Ares will scan for weak points. Rosenberg, don't launch your squadrons, by the time they get close enough to be effective, the pilots will be fried by the Demonic Energy." Xander ordered.

Buffy soon left the bridge of the Ares to make the Athena ready for launch as soon as they exited Warp.

* * *

The Ares and the Artemis warped into the system, with the Athena launching from the Ares as soon as they arrived. The Quarian Fleet was shot to pieces, with almost half the Patrol Fleet destroyed and a nine of the Heavy Fleet also destroyed. The majority of the remaining Quarians ships were damaged to various degrees but they were all still firing on the Nightmare Construct, as all the other Demonic forces had been destroyed. The entire side of the Construct facing the Quarian Fleet was cratered with impacts from the Fleet, enough firepower that anything else would have been destroyed.

The space around the Quarian Fleet was filled with Quarian life pods, amongst the wrecked ships and Demonic corpses. Fortunately for the Quarians in the life pods, the Nightmare Construct was not interested in them, and only really was interested in the Quarian Fleet as it was between it and its primary target, the planet below. One of the Quarian Patrol Fleet suddenly changed course, did a full power burn from its engines and then launched all its life pods. A moment later the Nightmare Construct fired and the now abandoned Patrol Fleet vessel passed between the Nightmare Construct and the Heavy Fleet ship the Construct had been firing at. The Patrol Fleet ship was destroyed, but the more powerful Heavy Fleet ship was saved and continued to fire. It was obvious that the Quarians had figured out the Nightmare Construct's firing pattern.

The three Section 31 opened fire on the opposite side of the Nightmare Construct, and for a minute both the Quarians and Section 31 were simply firing as fast as possible, but once the Ares was able to properly scan the Nightmare Construct, the fire became concentrated on three specific points on the Construct, vital nodes that produced and channelled the Demonic Energy.

As the fire of the Quarian and Section 31 became more concentrated, the fire from the Nightmare Construct increased. The Artemis took a shot that penetrated its shields and scored the side of the ship, opening up small hull breaches along the flank which were sealed by emergency bulkheads. Four more Quarian Patrol Fleet ships and two Heavy Fleet ships were also destroyed before the Construct was destroyed in ball of fire that appeared more like a miniature sun than an exploding ship.

* * *

"Fall back." Cordelia ordered. "Keep it orderly."

The remnants of both teams of ground troops had been consolidated into a single unit and even so it was smaller than original size of team one. The vehicles were long since destroyed or abandoned and all of the troopers were now injured and tired but still stubbornly fighting.

The troopers slowly moved backwards, up a slope, as they continued to fire at the onrushing horde of Demons. They no longer had the illusion that they could stop the Demons by firepower alone, but every Demon felled by bullets was one more that could not fight in close combat.

"Halt." Cordy called as they reached the top of the slope. "We make our stand here. Go Melee when they reach ten meters."

Every trooper who had survived this long had picked up some kind of melee weapon. Most of the MACO had been equipped with swords as part of their standard load out, and they had been trained in their use, the original Sunnydale MACO Squad trained by Giles, Harris and Summers and the newer recruits trained at the MACO school on Tycho. The Quarian Marines had started with a Mass Effect compactable spear, which was easy to learn the basics of and had more reach to keep the Demons back. The Asari Militia had picked up whatever they could find, some with swords or spears from fallen MACO and Quarians, others with farming scythes, or wooden staves taken from destroyed fences, or a length of metal crudely fashioned with a sharpish edge.

The choice to make their stand was not really a choice. Behind the troopers was largest city on the planet, the only one that really deserved the name. The Demons had swept through and destroyed six small farming communities, each with no more than fifty Asari residents, and the troopers had mostly managed to evacuate the communities before the Demons had arrived but at one they had been too late and arrived to find the Demons feasting on the corpses of the residents.

Before the Demons had closed the range lower than twenty meters, the fire from the troopers began to slacken off, from either overheating on the Asari and Quarian weapons or drained power cells on the Phaser Rifles.

"Melee and charge." Cordy shouted.

Guns were dropped or quickly slung onto backs by straps and the assorted melee weapons were readied before the troopers surged forward. Just as the troopers and Demons were about to meet, from just behind the troopers, a new star seemed to bloom in the sky close to the planet. The combination of the bright light and the loss of the Demonic Energy provided by the Nightmare Construct dazed and confused the last Demon Horde on the planet, allowing the Troopers to hit it with a devastating charge. Weakened to about the same strength as a normal Human, and a lot less naturally durable, the troopers were able to slice through the Horde like a hot knife through butter.

The Demons, normally enhanced by Demonic Energy and not used to being on the losing side, had their minds clouded enough that they did not realise how outmatched they were by the exhausted but determined troopers, so very few even contemplated running before they were cut down. Of the few Demons who did run, a number were cut down by rifle fire from the periphery of the battle but most scattered, though that 'most' was a total of seven Demons and each from a different species of Demon.

Cordy cut down her last opponent and looked around, finding nothing but troopers standing. Looking around she noticed there were too many of troopers down, including Aurora and Stephanie, two of the original Sunnydale MACO, who were dead and Captain Harmony Kendall had lost her left arm from just above the elbow and was currently tying off a tourniquet around her upper arm holding one end in her teeth.

"Colonel, I got ground control on comms." An Asari MACO Radio trooper, who had a backpack radio connected to a headset. "The Section 31 ships arrived and with the remnants of the Quarian Fleet they managed to take out the Construct. That was the light bloom. Ares scans indicate no more concentrations of Demonic signatures on the planet. Extraction boats will be here in forty minutes."

"Boats?" Cordy wondered.

"All three Sec 31 ships are damaged and don't want to risk long range transporters." The Radio trooper explained.

"With all the damage and the loss of the farming communities, I doubt the colony will survive. We made self sufficiency twenty years ago. Not long enough to build resistance to this kind of event but long enough for the trade routes to dissolve." One of the local Asari Militia said.

"Get the higher ups talking to the locals about the possibility of assistance or the need to evac." Cordy order to the radio trooper.

Wiping her forehead with the back of her hand, Cordy grabbed her water bottle and raised it to her lips, only to find it was empty.

"Here." One of the Quarian Marines offered his own water bottle.

The Quarian water bottle was more a squeeze container, so the straw portion can be inserted into the port at the front of the helmet, and it was mostly full as the sealed environment suits meant they lost less water during exertion. Cordy was careful to squirt the water into her mouth without putting the straw into her mouth. Returning the water bottle, she received an appreciative nod from the Quarian Marine.

TBC….


	11. Chapter 11

Title: Ship of The Line – Effect 31

Author: Knife Hand

Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated

Spoilers: Nothing Specific.

Rating: R

Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy, Star Trek or Mass Effect... I would buy them all but I am broke.

Summary: Bored with how things are going to play out, Janus interferes more directly in Halloween, making things more interesting and changing the course of the entire Galaxy. (Buffy/Star Trek/Mass Effect)

* * *

The three Councillors were sitting in the private office of the Asari Councillor as Elayna had the report of the Asari ships that had been dispatched to observe the Quarian Fleet's movement.

"These figures can't be right." The Turian Councillor commented as he looked down the list of damaged and destroyed Quairan ships. "Do we have any reports from anyone else sustaining any losses?"

The Quarians had obviously known they were being watched when they clearly broadcast the list of ships destroyed, and the observing ships could verify the damage to the remaining portions of the Quarian Fleets.

"None." The Salarian Councillor replied.

"Look at the scans." Elayna pointed out. "A number of the ships were barely functioning, and would need months in dock to be safe to fly, let alone combat ready. Notice too that there were no reports on any Section 31 attacks on the Batarians. I think whatever the Quarians were fighting, Section 31 were fighting too, and it's nothing we have ever seen before."

"I don't believe the scan data either." The Turian Councillor continued. "Look at the scans of the Salriats. According to this there are claw marks ripping through five decks. That is impossible."

"You also said a new race that could challenge a race like the Batarians was impossible too." The Salarian Councillor countered.

"I believe the scans." Elayna admitted. "And I believe the casualty report. I think that whatever they fought, is something Section 31 has fought before."

"Let's move on to another matter." The Salarian Councillor said. "One of the Spectres has stopped reporting in and did not complete her last mission. Which other Spectres do we have available to hunt her down?"

* * *

The space around The Forge was packed. When fully completed The Forge would have six functioning Space Docks that could each service or build any ship design in the database, which included all of the ship designs for the major races of the Galaxy as well as all standard Starfleet and Section 31 variants. Currently only three of the Space Docks were completed and all three were occupied. One was just hours away from finishing the repairs on the Athena, the least wounded and most easily fixed of the three Section 31 ships, and the other two were in the process of repairing two of the Quarian Heavy Fleet. A number of the Patrol Fleet Vessels had workers in spacesuits crawling over their hulls as they were 'at anchor'.

Inside the control hub of The Forge, there was a meeting going on between the Station Master; the Construction Chief; the Quarian Admirals of the Heavy and Patrol fleets; and Commodore Harris.

"The Quarian need is greater, they should be getting all of the berths." A voice argued

"We need the Section 31 ships done as a priority. They are our greatest asset." Another voice retorted.

"Is anyone else confused?" The Construction Chief added. "Why is Section 31 advocating for the Quarians to be given priority, while the Admiralty is arguing for Section 31."

The Station Master, an Asari, just shrugged at the Construction Chief, a Human.

"For the moment, I think we are good with one berth for Section 31 and two for the Quarians. Berth four should be up and running in two days, barring any problems, and that one will go to the Quarians as well." The Station Master declared. "Aside from anything else, most of the workforce is much more familiar with Mass Effect Technology than Section 31 Technology. All our Section 31 qualified technicians are already working on the Athena. Once she is out of dock, the Artemis will be next in the dock, and again we don't have the crew to work on both her and the Ares at the same time. By the Goddess, you are all lucky this happened now, because we were two days from laying down keels when word of this whole affair came to us, so we held off otherwise we would have had exactly one berth available."

"What about the retrofits of the Quarian vessels we discussed?" Xander asked.

"We'll do what we can, but at this stage getting them space worthy and in fighting condition takes priority." The Construction Chief replied, getting a nod in reply.

"Good, now all of you get out of my office." The Station Master ordered. "Chief, you stay. We need to discuss the zero gravity welding teams."

* * *

Faith found herself wandering around Tycho, the main military base where she and most of her group from Boston, except Kate, Nikki and Bobby who had gone to Haven, had ended up. Upon arrival they had met with Commandant Tina Reicher, a petite redheaded human, who led the MACO school, and Lieutenant Commander Miros'Larris, who oversaw the Section 31 Academy Career Placement. The Lieutenant Commander was the first Alien that they had met, from a species call Quarians who lived most of their lives in environmental suits due to their strange immune system, which was well beyond Faith's understanding.

Since that first encounter, the group had met several different species of Aliens. Sexy blue alien women with tentacle like structures on their heads instead of hair. Flat faced and grey skinned aliens who spoke a mile a minute. Armoured and vaguely bird like aliens. A sole alien with four eyes who tried to avoid being noticed and subconsciously deferred to everyone, accompanied by one of the blue women. Aliens with reptilian skin, large black eyes and what appeared to be a gill like structure around their cheeks and neck.

Since that first meeting, they had all, except Helen Shepard, undergoing testing to see where they would be placed. Helen had been put through a range of physical tests to find out her capabilities. That had changed this morning. There had been no assignments, no tests, nothing.

Rounding a corner, Faith was confronted with a crowd moving through the halls. Mostly Human, Quarian and Asari, the blue Alien women, but this was no ordinary crowd. There were stretchers, people walking while leaning on others and the, now familiar to Faith, outfit of Section 31 Medical Personnel. Faith instantly recognised claw wounds, crushed legs and arms and bladed weapon wounds. All the wounds she had seen in her fighting in Boston.

One of the Asari, who had been struggling along on her own, dropped to the ground, so Faith rushed to her side and helped her too her feet. Faith saw that the Asari had claw wounds across her abdomen. Faith supported the Asari, putting the Asari's arm over her own shoulders, as she began walking in the same direction as everyone else was going. Next to her was walking a brunette woman who moved with confidence, supporting a blonde who had lost her left arm.

"What happened?" Faith asked the brunette.

"Everyone knows what happened. Where have you been, under a rock?" the brunette replied.

"Just off the boat from Earth a few days ago. They don't tell us recruits much until we get placed." Faith replied.

"Demonic incursion." The brunette explained. "Hit an Asari colony and we were there to stop it."

"Damn, sounds way worse that what we faced in Boston." Faith mused. "We just had to deal with a Vampire Master, a bunch of demons and bloodsuckers, but nothing like this."

"Welcome to the real war." The brunette replied.

"Colonel Chase! Where are you hurt?" one of the medical staff called to the brunette.

"I'm fine. Take care of Captain Kendall." The Colonel said, handing off the blonde to the medical staff.

Another medical staff member took the Asari off Faith's hands.

"Where do you need me, Colonel?" Faith asked, now free from her patient.

"Follow me. There are more wounded." Colonel Chase ordered.

TBC….


End file.
